Dilution
by Hopless-case
Summary: AU Bosco is a druggie(not a cop) , has fallen into depression, and is falling in a downward spiral. Will Mercedes and Faith be able to help him?
1. Default Chapter

Dilution 1/?  
  
Rating: R (for drugs and language)  
  
Note: A/U. Bosco is a druggie, and doesn't work for the 55, Mikey is dealing and using. Faith and Fred are divorced. Mercedes is Bosco's brother, and works for the 55 and is partnered up with Faith. I love Fyre for letting me use Mercedes. 333's to her.  
  
His eyes and fingers searched desperately for a vein. A blue vein, popping up from the skin, in his arm, in his leg, his chest, on his foot, anywhere. His eyes caught the blue shinning through his pale skin like a ghost, and his eyes lit up. Picking up the needle, he felt his whole body relax. He needed this high.  
  
It was later that night, around nine-thirty when he found himself wandering down the slick streets of NYC. It was raining, but not quiet pouring out yet. He felt himself shiver, but the cold wasn't bothering him all that much. He was still buzzed, and was now drenched from head to toe in rain water. He tried to remember where he was going and why, but couldn't think of anything. Smacking his head, he remembered. The precinct. He was going to find Mercedes because he couldn't get into his own apartment. He'd lost the key, and the landlord wasn't going to give him another one – he was evicting him to be exact. He'd lost his temper, and slammed his fist through the wall. His knuckles were bleeding still, the water mixing with his blood, diluting it.  
  
Bosco walked into the precinct, his feet sliding along the ground because he couldn't quite pick them all the way up yet. His head was pounding, and his stomach hurt. His hand sent messages of pain to his brain, and his blood dripping onto the floor, along with the water that was dripping from his clothes and hair.  
  
When he walked in, Officer John Sullivan looked up, and shook his head. How two kids in the Boscorelli family turned out to be druggies, and the other one turned out to be a cop, he didn't know. He looked over his shoulder to where Mercedes and her partner Faith Yokas were coming back from locking a guy up.  
  
"You got company." He told Mercedes, his voice flat and void of all emotion but annoyance.  
  
Bosco grinned stupidly at Sully, "Nice to see you too, Fat Guy." Bosco told him, glancing at his sister.  
  
"What the hell happened to you?" Mercedes asked, quickly running up to him, grabbing his hand and examining his fist.  
  
"Oh. That." Bosco said, looking at his hand. "Wall. Land Lord."  
  
"You punched your Land Lord?" Mercedes asked, worry entering the expression on her face.  
  
"No. No. Land Lord...evicted me." He said, "He wouldn't give me my key, and and, and he said I couldn't stay there anymore, and I had to get my stuff out by like...next year or something."  
  
"You got kicked out?" She asked her brother, dropping his hand and shaking her head. "You can never stay in one place for more than a month or stay clean for more than a day, can you?" She asked him.  
  
"Am now."  
  
"Ya, how many fingers am I holding up." She asked, sticking up her middle finger.  
  
Bosco laughed, "One!" He told her. "Bad. Bad, Mercedes. Hand gest...gestures like that are NOT nice." He looked over at Faith, and looked her up and down, checking her out.  
  
Faith rolled her eyes, having been through this before with him, ever since he'd heard that she was divorced from Fred now.  
  
"Lookin' nice, Officer Yokas." He told her, a sly grin appearing on his face, his features suddenly turning charming. If she didn't know how much trouble he was, she would probably go for him.  
  
Instead, she whacked him upside the head, and turned him towards the locker rooms. "Lets go get you cleaned up before your sister kills you, Bosco." She told him, winking at Mercedes. She knew that for Mercedes, having to take care of Bosco and Mikey when they were high was like taking care of a screaming baby. You wanted to slap them and kill them, and bury them in a deep whole in Jersey.  
  
Mercedes silently thanked her, and turned towards the desk, planning on calling the Land Lord from the complex her brother had been kicked out of, and find out when she had to have his stuff moved by. She saw Swersky coming out of his office, and put a fake smile on her face.  
  
"Was that your brother?" He asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"I'm sure. He starts another fight here like he did last week, the next time he steps foot in here again with out handcuffs around his wrists, he's going in lock up."  
  
"Got it." She said, plastering a smile on her face and turning away from him when he left again.  
  
She remembered last week all to well. Her brother had come in, high on ecstasy she was guessing, he never told her, mostly because he didn't remember, and she really didn't care. The only thing she knew was that her boyfriend, Ty Davis, had told him that she didn't want to see him then, because she hadn't. Early that week he had slept over at her apartment and broke the kitchen table, and got high in her bedroom. So naturally, Bosco hearing someone tell him that he couldn't see his sister, met his fist with Ty's face.  
  
Mercedes had come out just in time to see her brother take the first swing, and watched as Ty tackled him. Her brother was strong though, hours of weight lifting and drugs on his side, he starting beating on Ty – which was why he wasn't at work that day. He was still off he was so sore and bruised up. Not to mention the fact that Bosco had broken the cops wrist. Swersky wasn't there, and Ty had lied and said that he had went for Bosco first when he said something not-so-nice about his ancestry. Mercedes was just glad that Ty liked her enough to not press charges against Bosco.  
  
In the locker room, Faith had gotten Bosco to sit down the bench. She ran a towel through his hair, roughing it up, giggling slightly when she pulled the towel away. His hair was sticking up in a million different directions. She walked over to the sink, and wet the towel some more, and sat down next to him.  
  
His eyes met with hers, and he was silent as she picked up his hand and dapped the cut on his knuckles with the green towel. "You have pretty eyes." He told her, swallowing hard.  
  
How he managed to turn on the Joe-Cool act like turning the lights on and off, she didn't know. "Thanks." She told him, "You got a nasty cut here. You should probably head down to the hospital."  
  
"No. No. No Mercy. Cede would try to get me to stay."  
  
"Which would probably be good for you. She cares about her, she just wants you to...Get better. Not use."  
  
Bosco shrugged, "Shit happens."  
  
"Doesn't have too."  
  
"I used to be in the academy you know." He told her, which made her ears perk up. She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, Mercedes had never mentioned anything about it. She never really mentioned all that much about him, or why she always put up with him. She just said that she owed it to him, but would never get into more detail than that about it.  
  
"Really?" She asked.  
  
He nodded, "Ya. With Cede. We used to go..um..together. Together." He told her, his face looking like he was going back in time, trying to remember the distant memory. "She wanted to go, but Ma didn't want her to. So I said I'd go too."  
  
"Well, that was nice of you."  
  
"Ya. But then..." He shook his head, "Wasn't smart enough to make it." He pointed to his head, shaking his head. "Wasn't smart enough..."  
  
To Faith, he seemed dazed, "So because you couldn't be a cop, you decided to do everything that they were against?" She asked him.  
  
Bosco shrugged, "Mikey was in trouble...I helped him out a little. Things just happened."  
  
"I'm sure." She told him.  
  
He hissed in pain, pulling his hand away from her as she pressed the towel to his knuckles. They weren't bleeding so much now, and he smiled meekly at her. "All better."  
  
"You're shivering." He looks at me like I'm stupid, like what I just said couldn't have been any more pathetic. "Umm..." I get up and turn to my locker, spinning the lock and opening it. I look at him, his body, his fragile, thin, body. He's probably skinnier than me, his eyes sunken in, dark circles under them. "I have an extra street shirt you could probably fit into." I tell him, "Says NYPD." I pull out the navy blue shirt, and turn to him.  
  
His shirt is off his body, and I cannot help but look at him. His skin is white, pure white, ghastly white. He has a little muscle, but my gaze fall to his arms. My eyes see red lines of anger etched into his skin. Lines that are deep, not just scratches from a metal object, but deep, dark, red lines. All etched up and down his arms. Some are bigger than others, and I find myself reaching out to feel them. I lightly run my fingers down a scabbing line, and his hand tightly wraps around mine. I look up into his eyes, is cool, calm, deep blue orbs. I feel him pressing my hand onto the scar, and I see his jaw clench a little. I try to wither away, but he holds onto me tighter. I see his Adams apple bob as he swallows, and presses my fingers harder against his skin.  
  
A sick smile comes across his face, "I don't mind the pain." He tells me, "I like it. That's why Mercedes wants me to get help. She doesn't care about the drugs, the heroin, the ecstasy, anything. The only thing she cares about, is me not trying to kill myself, or hurting myself anymore. Ever wonder why she's not so concerned about Mikey?"  
  
The truth is, I have. I just figured it was a favorite thing, something she owed him.  
  
"It's cause I do this, and he doesn't." He lets go of my hand, and I pull back, stepping a few paces away from him. He holds out his arm, looking at the strawberry markings. I see him smile, a laugh come from his throat as he drops his arm again and takes the dry shirt from my hand. "She's afraid that one day she'll come home, and I'll already be dead." 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Dilution  
  
Rating: R (Subject content, so beware....)  
  
Note: Sorry it's short, but im having troubles writing lately. A/U. Bosco is a druggie, and doesn't work for the 55, Mikey is dealing and using. Faith and Fred are divorced. Mercedes is Bosco's brother, and works for the 55 and is partnered up with Faith. I love Fyre for letting me use Mercedes. 333's to her.  
  
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"So, Bosco doesn't seem to be doing so good." I say, looking away from the road and to Mercedes for a moment. I see her body tense, her whole figure turn just slightly away from me. I know it's an uncomfortable subject, especially because just moments ago she sent him on his way from the precinct. It was still raining, and I was coming out of the locker room after cleaning up from taking care of Bosco when I heard them shouting.  
  
Mercedes screamed at Bosco, told him that he was nothing, and that she hated him. She told him to leave, and he obliged, glaring at her. I hadn't asked her about it yet, partly because it's raining out, and I'm afraid that she'll attack me while I'm driving the squad if I do.  
  
"Better compared to some days." She tells me, running a hand through her hair.  
  
She could be a model, really, she could. She's pretty, real pretty, prettier than I'll ever be. She could make a lot more money modeling than she ever could being a cop, but here she is.  
  
"He told me he used to be in the academy."  
  
I see her lips curl up into a slight smile, remembering probably. "Ya. He did." She told me, proving his story right, "Always said he couldn't do it though – wasn't smart enough. I told him that if he would just study...but then...Well, he just couldn't do it."  
  
She paused, longer than I would like, almost as if she's hiding something from me. Her smile has faded now, her eyes gone back to being dark. I wonder what happened, if maybe he didn't just study. Something more along the lines of it being drug related is what my mind tells me.  
  
I shrug, "It's not for everybody."  
  
"No. No, it's not."  
  
I should never have brought it up. I never should have even said it under my breath, because I knew that she would hear it. She told me though, she told me that I could only move in with her if I didn't get involved in her personal life.  
  
"You can stay, Reese, but you can't EVER butt into things that don't concern you. Such as Ty, got it?"  
  
"I'm sure he's the only one your screwing...whore." I'd said the last part under my breath, but she heard.  
  
That's when she told me to get the hell out, that I wasn't welcome there or anywhere she was anymore, because she hated me. I guess I understand, because I remember.  
  
Bosco just walked into the small apartment. It was four rooms – a kitchen, living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. He, Mikey, and Mercedes all slept in the living room on the pull out couch or on the floor. But upon entering the tiny apartment, he heard noises. Someone crying, a grunt.  
  
He froze. His mother and father weren't supposed to be home. His Ma was working at the bar, and his dad was supposed to be gone finding another job because he'd lost his again. The only people there should have been Mercedes, who was ten at the time, and the babysitter for her – Ron Damagala.  
  
He heard the crying get louder, a voice yelling to shut up. It was Ron, he knew that. Dropping his bag, he ran down the small hallway, if it could even be called that, and turned into his parents bedroom.  
  
He felt sick to his stomach when he saw Ron on top of his baby sister, her cries louder now. Rage swarmed throughout his body, and he lunged forwards. Grabbing at Ron's neck, he wrestled him off of the bed, and onto the ground. He was sitting on his chest, punching his face over and over, not stopping when the older man's hand raked at his skin. He was soon thrown to the side, and Ron got up, and began to run out of the room. Bosco got to his feet, following him, screaming at him to get out. He followed him out into the hallway until he could see him leaving, and then turned back towards the bedroom.  
  
Mercedes was balled up on the bed, a sheet wrapped around her body, her whole frame shaking as she cried. 


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Dilution  
  
Rating: R (Subject content, so beware....)  
  
Note: Sorry it's been so long since an update, I've bee out of town. My muse, Patrick, he's dying. He's in ICU – very critical condition. I'm not sure if he can breath on his own.... A/U. Bosco is a druggie, and doesn't work for the 55, Mikey is dealing and using. Faith and Fred are divorced. Mercedes is Bosco's brother, and works for the 55 and is partnered up with Faith. I love Fyre for letting me use Mercedes. *hearts* to her.  
  
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It was still raining out when I left, hard. My head was pounding, and when I looked down to keep the rain from getting in my eyes, I realized I was still wearing Faith's shirt. I felt bad, watching it get wet. She'd wanted me to stay dry, so I wouldn't get sick. My mind still pulled at me, my conscience making me feel guilty about everything. The shirt, about what I said to Mercedes, about how all those years ago I couldn't save her.  
  
My body is restless, my mind is screaming, my blood is crawling in my veins. I look around me, trying to decide the quickest way to Mikey's, the quickest way to get there so I can get there fast and get high.  
  
By the time I get to Mikey's, my clothes are thoroughly soaked, my hair is dripping. Walking into the quiet apartment building where my brother lives, I can hear my shoes squeaking on the tiled floor, the bottoms of my jeans flopping on the ground with every step I take. I make my way up the stairs, leaving water spots behind me, and I make a left so I'm standing in front of room 214. I knock, even though I really don't have too. I know Mikey wouldn't mind if I just walked in, but I'm feeling courteous today.  
  
No one answers, so I turn the nob – locked. Sighing, I put some weight into the door and turn the handle, breaking it open. Right now I don't care if I'm making a lot of noise. Just thinking of getting a rush is making my body buzz.  
  
It's only a few minutes before I'm sitting on the couch, a needle in one hand, the other searching for a vein on my arm. I find one quickly, and slide the needle into my skin. I'm pushing the liquid into my arm when I realize that something's wrong. I don't know what it is, but I know that something isn't right.  
  
What I should be feeling – I am. It's better than ever. My skin is crawling, my mouth is getting dry. I try to swallow, but I can't. My whole world is blurry, and I feel myself starting to laugh, and starting to fall. I hit something soft, probably the couch, a pillow maybe, but it hurts, and my world is fading.  
  
Mikey stopped dead in the hallway when he noticed that the wood around the lock to the door was splintered of his apartment door. Stepping forward, he turned the knob and opened the door. He sighed when he saw his brother on his side on the couch.  
  
"Nice to know you stopped by for a hit." He said, putting his keys on the table by the door. He walked over by the end of the couch, and smacked his brothers feet. "You owe me for what you did."  
  
When Bosco didn't respond, Mikey walked around to the front of the couch, and shook Bosco by the shoulders. "Mo. Hey...Mo." He said, his voice cracking a little. "Maurice. Get up!" He shook him harder. "Come on, it's not funny, get UP!"  
  
Mikey turned his brothers head, and checked his neck for a pulse. He found, one, but it was weak. "Mo. MO!" He said, his voice panicking. He shook him harder, and felt himself beginning to sweat. "Shit!"  
  
He looked around for the phone, but didn't see it. Digging his cell-phone from his pocket, he pulled it opened and dialed 911.  
  
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A\N: Short, I Know, but I'm working on it. Give me time....lol. 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Dilution  
  
Note: I'm having a wee bit of a problem with paragraph separations when I upload my documents onto here, so the ------ are just separations of paragraphs in some places....go with it. A/U .... Bosco is a druggie, yada yada yada, you've heard it enough.....Gracias to Fyre for letting me use Mercedes, and for making me write another chapter.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Mikey ran a hand through his hair as he watched the doctors push his brother into a trauma room. Licking his lips, he turned from the scene – unable to watch. Bosco had been cold – ice cold by the time the ambulance got there. His lips had turned a pale shade of blue, his skin was white, his eyes never opened.  
  
It was busy in the ER, people were running around, some cops and paramedics were coming and going. Mikey looked around the area of Mercy, feeling overwhelmed, the whole room spinning. He heard a nurse talking to him, but he just sat down in a plastic waiting chair. He put his head in his hands, and pulled at his hair. Mercedes. He had to get a hold of Mercedes. No, if he told her that his brother was in the hospital because he overdosed, she would freak and call it suicide, and get him into rehab.  
  
It wasn't that he didn't want his brother to go into rehab...well, it was, but he knew that his brother didn't need it. He was a junkie too after all, and to him, Bosco was fine. It was just an accident that happened, and Mercedes didn't even have to know about it.  
  
----------  
  
Mercedes and Faith laughed as they pushed a perp inside the doors to Mercy. The guy was drunk, and had been complaining of his knee hurting – courtesy of Mercedes tackling him when he had tried to get away.  
  
"You like, jumped on him." Faith told her, "Like some kinda big cat jumping on it's prey."  
  
Mercedes scoffed at her, "I did not! I just....tackled him. Besides, he was running away."  
  
They just finished checking the drunk in when Faith turned around and glanced at who was waiting in the chairs. Her jaw practically dropped the floor, and she swallowed hard. "Cede..." She said quietly, pulling on the younger cops sleeve and nodding over to the chairs with her chin.  
  
Mercedes turned around, a dull look in her eyes until she saw who Faith was pointing too. Her throat closed up, and her whole body filled with fear from seeing her brother sitting twenty feet from her.  
  
"Mikey?" She said harshly, "Mikey, what are you doing...."  
  
Mikey looked up, and panicked when he saw his sister. He got up on his feet, trying to think of what to tell her, what lie he could come up with.  
  
"Oh. Hey."  
  
"What are you doing here, Mikey?" Mercedes asked, slowly walking towards him.  
  
Mikey's eyes scanned around for the nearest exit, he wasn't going to stick around for when she found out that Bosco was there. He was too late though, because one of the nurses working on his brother came up, ruining his chances of escaping.  
  
"We managed to stabilize your brother," She started, "He's not awake yet, but he should be in a few hours. We're putting him in a room down here, and you can go in and see him in a little bit."  
  
"Uh..." Mikey glanced over at his sister, wishing that he hadn't. Her whole face had gone pale, her eyes were full of anger and fear. "Thanks."  
  
The nurse nodded, and walked away. As soon as she was gone, Mercedes was up in Mikey's face, screaming at him.  
  
"What the hell is she talking about, Michael? Where's Reese? What did he do?"  
  
"Nothing. Nothing. It's nothing, I swear...." He tried to tell her, but her hand was now grasping the neck of his shirt, and her eyes looked like they could shoot daggers out at him. "I came home and found him, that's it, I swear!"  
  
"Found him, how?" She asked, tears filling her eyes. She didn't want to have to see him in a hospital bed, his wrists wrapped up in gauze because he tried to kill himself again. She couldn't go through with that. Not again.  
  
"He just OD'd, Cede. It was an accident." Mikey pleaded with her, trying to wither away from her grasp.  
  
"You said you came home and FOUND him, you don't know that!" She shrieked back at him.  
  
"It was strong stuff, really pure, he didn't know Mercedes, He didn't know, I swear. I swear." He held his hands up defensively, "You know the stuff on the street if better and cheaper than ever, I swear."  
  
Mercedes let him go, a few tears spilling from her eyes. "Tell him that when he wakes up, he's not welcome to stay with me."  
  
Even though she was younger than Mikey was, she was stronger, and she shoved him backwards before walking out of Mercy, Faith following her. Mikey only stared after them, trying to regain his composure.  
  
----------  
  
"She's mad, Mo. Real mad." Mikey told his brother as they walked out of Mercy.  
  
Bosco only nodded, leaning up against his younger brother for support. He was still shaky on his feet, wishing that he hadn't signed out AMA. "Stuff happens..."  
  
"She's pissed off, like she's ready to kill you. She started crying and just left when she found out you were here." He told him, giving him a sad look. "She said you couldn't go to her place anymore...whatever that means."  
  
"Got booted from my new place." He told him, talking slowly. "Cede said I could stay with her."  
  
"Not anymore."  
  
"Does she hate me?"  
  
"Hell if I know." He raised his arm up, signaling for a cab. One pulled up to the side of the road quickly, and Mikey helped his brother get in before he did.  
  
"But she doesn't want me staying with her.."  
  
"Would you want you staying with you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Why not, I'm great company." Bosco told him, grinning, "Ain't I?"  
  
"I'll let you stay with me. But you can't be stupid." Mikey told him, feeling like he was the older brother. Granted they were both users, Bosco was just...more open about it to other people. He also had the tendency to start fights with anyone and anything – which was the fact that normally got him kicked out of apartment complexes. Mikey on the other hand, just got kicked out for being caught selling drugs out of his room. "You start one fight with anyone in the building, and you're out, got it? This is the last place I got a chance at staying at, you know."  
  
"I know. I know."  
  
"Good."  
  
The cabbie pulled the car up in front of the apartment complex, and Mikey looked over at his brother. "Here," He said, handing him an extra key, "I gotta be someone, I'm late as it is already causa you. I'll be home later."  
  
----------  
  
55-David had been full of silence for too long, and Faith was beginning to squirm in her seat. Mercedes had stopped crying awhile ago, but she was still looking out the side window, not talking, not moving.  
  
"You okay?" She finally asked, shattering the stillness.  
  
Mercedes breathed in deeply, her breath out shaky, like she was going to burst into tears again. "Fine."  
  
"Really? Cause you don't seem fine."  
  
"Well, I am. So just drop it, okay?"  
  
"You should have stayed..."  
  
"Ya? What the hell do you know about it?" She snapped, turning to look at her partner, "I've spent HOURS in the hospital just because he overdosed, or he tried to kill himself, or because he got beat up, or Mikey OD'd. I'm sick of it! I don't CARE anymore."  
  
"Then why were you crying just now?" Faith asked, ignoring the fact that Mercedes was yelling at her. "If you don't care, why are you crying?"  
  
"I'm not!"  
  
"You were. Don't lie. I saw you, Mercedes."  
  
"I'm sick of having to worry about them!" Mercedes told her, tears coming again, "I'm so sick of all of this shit. I've tried to get him into rehab centers so many times. I'm so worn out, Faith. I'm the youngest kid, I'm not supposed to be taking care of my older brothers, they're supposed to be takin' care of me...."  
  
----------  
  
Walking into the building, Bosco dug his hands into his pockets, his head pounding. His numb fingers felt a sharp metal object in his jeans, and his face scrunched up as he pulled it out.  
  
He figured that the nurses had taken in, but they hadn't. Either they missed it, or they didn't check, but whatever it was, he still had his pocket knife. What his brother told him about how his sister was pissed off at him ran through his mind, and he swallowed hard.  
  
His mind was dark, clouded. The only thing he ever felt was his body throbbing for a hit, a rush. He wanted to feel again, he did. Pain made him feel, it made him feel whole again.  
  
Swallowing hard, he slumped into a hallway corner, and flipped the blade open, the metal glistening in his eyes. His sister hated him – again, if she ever stopped in the first place. He was a disappointment, wasn't he? Mercedes hadn't even waited around to see if he was okay that day in the hospital, she just left. She didn't care about him. The only person he always had didn't care about him. Sure, Mikey was there, but not all the time. He left him to himself, let him figure out all the hard stuff, let him deal with his pain. Mikey didn't care.  
  
He pressed the cool metal to his flesh, and pressed down. Hard. 


	5. Chapter 5

Dilution 5/?  
  
Rating: R (for drugs and language)  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine. But oh, how I wish they could be.....  
  
Note: I'm having a wee bit of a problem with paragraph separations when I upload my documents onto here, so the ------ are just separations of paragraphs in some places....go with it. A/U .... Bosco is a druggie, yada yada yada, you've heard it enough.....Gracias to Fyre for letting me use Mercedes, and for making me write another chapter.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Everything was surreal – the feelings, the thoughts, the motions. He was stuck in slow-mo, and he couldn't figure out why. All he knew was that he wanted out. He felt nothing, not even when he stared at his bleeding arms. Blood dripped rhythmically from them, forming dots of the red liquid on the ground. His vision was becoming blurry, and the dots grew fuzzy, everything was slowly becoming darker. His breathing got shallower, and it became harder to keep his eyes open. But the feeling – it still wasn't there – nothing was. He was still nothing, he wasn't anything, he knew would be.  
  
The thoughts plagued his mind, tore him up from the inside and made salty tears creep up and out of his eyes. He felt them falling from his face – the only feeling he could feel. And then movement caught his eyes, a person, a girl, she had long hair, blonde hair. Her eyes were blue– so blue he thought that they were the ocean and he could swim in them. She was next to him, holding his hand, whispering things to him, telling him that it was going to be okay, that help was on the way.  
  
To him, he was beyond help.  
  
===========  
  
"55-central to 55-david."  
  
Mercedes glanced over at Faith, and sighed, picking up the car radio. "55- david responding."  
  
"Your presence is requested over at Angel of Mercy hospital."  
  
Mercedes eyes glazed over, she knew it had to be her brother. He probably couldn't let the nurses let him sign out, and he needed her help to do it. She sighed, "Why's that?"  
  
"Get over to Angel of Mercy."  
  
She heard central cutting her off, and rolled her eyes as Faith turned the RMP around. "I swear....that jag-off is not getting my help so he can get outta there."  
  
Faith slightly smirked at her words – she had heard Bosco say that so much, so often, that she knew Mercedes must have picked it up from him. "Who knows. Maybe they need someone to say he can go into rehab or something."  
  
"He's an adult, 32 fucking years old, he can do it himself. Besides, hell would freeze over, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be real before that ever happened."  
  
Mercedes and Faith walked into Mercy side by side, a glum look on the younger officers face, which soon turned to face when a nurse walked up to her, a sad look on her face.  
  
"You're Officer Boscorelli, right? Maurice's sister?" She asked. "You were here earlier when he had OD'd."  
  
"Uhh...Ya. Why? Something wrong?" She asked, her features turning to fear.  
  
"He was brought in again." The nurse started, "He's in trauma one now."  
  
"What happened?" Mercedes asked, her figure shaking a little, "He came here to get help, he was going to fine when I left...."  
  
"Your other brother, Michael, he took him home not too long ago. A young women found Maurice in the hallway of an apartment building, it looked like he'd hurt himself. He's lost a lot of blood, and crashed in the ambulance on the way here. Right now he's...."  
  
Mercedes had lost her at 'found Maurice in the hallway....' and she was already walking towards the trauma room, her body shaking harder now, her lower lip trembling.  
  
A hand touched her shoulder, and she spun around, her gaze falling on a young women with blonde hair. "You're his sister?" She asked.  
  
Mercedes only nodded.  
  
"Then you know he'll be okay. I found him and called for an ambulance. They said I should stay until you got here incase I had to answer any questions..."  
  
Mercedes looked at the girl, and swallowed hard. She knew that if her brother had had the choice, between being saved and sinking, he'd want someone to tie cement blocks to his feet and drown him in the nearest river. "Uh...thanks." She said, looking back into the room.  
  
Her brother was on his back, a few doctors checking his vitals and finishing up. There were two IV's in him, one in his arm, the other on the back of his hand.  
  
She felt Faith stand next to her, "He'll be okay. The doctor said they got him stabilized, but he'll need to stay here for awhile....Cede....." She met her friends gaze, "I think now's the time to really get him some help."  
  
==========  
  
"How could you leave him alone after something like that?" Mercedes hissed at her brother in the hallway. The two had started arguing about putting Bosco into rehab and how Mikey could have left him after taking him to his place since he had arrived at Mercy.  
  
Both siblings were outside of Bosco's room, Faith standing across the hall, leaning up against the wall.  
  
"I had things to do! I can't watch him twenty four/seven like he's a little kid!"  
  
"He IS a little kid still, Mikey!"  
  
"He's 32 – he's older than us."  
  
"And he's worse than you, Michael! He'd just OD'd, and you said yourself he was really depressed when you left him. You don't just leave him alone when he's like that, you should know that by now! I'm sick of having to take care of both of you!"  
  
"He wants to fucking die so bad, let him!" Mikey yelled back, "Don't fucking take care of him, or me, anymore! I don't want your help, I don't need it! And neither does he! Don't pretend you're our mother!"  
  
Mercedes felt tears stinging her eyes – she'd always taken care of them – always. She was the one who paid for their hospital bills, she gave them a place to live, money so they could buy food.  
  
"Don't you DARE say that to me!" She cried back, "I take care of both of your sorry asses ALL the time."  
  
"He wants to die, Mercedes." Mikey said again lowly, "Let him die, and stay out of his life already. Don't you see it? Didn't you hear what they told you? The doctor said there were scars all over his abdomen, his legs, his arms. He's been doing this for so long, he wants to die, Mercedes. Let him already. Let him go. Don't take care of him. Leave him alone. He doesn't need rehab, he needs for you to leave him alone."  
  
"FUCK YOU!" She yelled back, feeling Faith pulling her back.  
  
"Both of you, stop it!" Faith yelled, "Mikey, just leave. Now."  
  
Mikey looked at his sister, anger in his eyes, "Don't do this to him – it's not worth it." He said, turning and walking down the hall.  
  
As soon as he was out of site, Mercedes let the tears fall, and fell into Faith's arms. "He needs help. He need's help...."  
  
"I know. Don't listen to Mikey, okay? We're gonna get Bosco help, and he's gonna be fine."  
  
==========  
  
Inside the hospital room, Bosco stared at the closed door. He heard Mercedes and Mikey fighting, his body shivering as their voices got louder. He hated it when they fought – especially now, when it was over him.  
  
His brother was right though. He wanted to die, he wanted to be left alone. He was okay with that. He knew there wasn't any reason he was there except to make his sisters life a living hell. 


	6. Chapter 6

Dilution 6/?  
  
Rating: R (for drugs and language)  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine. But oh, how I wish they could be.....  
  
Note: I'm having a wee bit of a problem with paragraph separations when I upload my documents onto here, so the ------ are just separations of paragraphs in some places....go with it. A/U .... Bosco is a druggie, yada yada yada, you've heard it enough.....Gracias to Fyre for letting me use Mercedes, and for making me write another chapter. Thanks for the feedback, sorry it's been so long...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"It'll be an intense program..." The doctor continued, "It'll be months before you get out – but since you're an adult, you need to sign yourself in. Once you're in, you don't get out until you get the approval. You understand that?"  
  
Mercedes sighed, "He gets it." She hissed, "And he'll sign it." She glared over at Bosco, who was sitting up in the hospital bed. His sister was sitting next to him in a chair, the doctor at the foot of the bed with a clipboard and a few papers about the rehab program Mercedes wanted him to go into.  
  
Bosco only let his gaze cast downward, "I don't need rehab." He said, "I'm fine. I can deal with it – everything today, it was just a bad day."  
  
"No," Mercedes interrupted him, "It was a normal day. A bad day would be when you end up killing yourself"! She felt the tears in the back of her eyes already, but she vowed not to cry in front of her brother.  
  
"I think you two need to talk about this. Mr. Boscorelli – I highly recommend this program, I've had many patients who enter it and come out better." He nodded, and left, leaving the papers behind with Mercedes.  
  
In the hallway, Faith watched as the doctor left, and slowly walked into the room. "Everything work out?" she asked, leaning up against the wall by Mercedes.  
  
The two siblings glared at each other. Bosco was pale, his skin whiter than before, his eyes were sunken in, the dark circles under his eyes had only grown blacker, his wrists still wrapped in a gauze that was turning a bright red.  
  
"Apparently not..." She mused to herself, hearing the slight sound of static come in through her radio. She heard 55 David being called, and looked at Mercedes for direction.  
  
"Let's go." Mercedes said, getting up and turning from her brother. He didn't say goodbye, and neither did she as she walked out of the room, picking up her own radio and answering the call.  
  
Faith cast a sad look at Bosco, "She only wants to help you, ya know." She told him.  
  
"And I only want her to leave me the FUCK ALONE!" He yelled, making sure that Mercedes could hear him from the hallway.  
  
Faith shook her head, "Don't turn your back on her. You need her."  
  
=====  
  
"Boscorelli!" Swersky called as he saw her and Faith leaving the locker room after shift, "You gotta call."  
  
Mercedes sighed, "Ya, who is it?"  
  
"Make a guess."  
  
"Tell him I ain't coming to pick up his sorry ass, and it sucks for him not to have money for a cab." She said, breezing past the desk, not even batting an eye.  
  
Behind her, Faith sighed, and put her hand out for the Lieu to give her the phone. "I'll take it for her." She told him.  
  
"Bosco?" She asked.  
  
"Faith? Where's Mercedes?"  
  
"You think she really wants to talk to you? She left, buddy."  
  
"Did you tell her I was the one calling?"  
  
"Bosco. She doesn't want to talk to you. You pissed her off – she tries hard to make everything work out with all of you guys, and you shoot her down. She can't take much more of it – she doesn't want to deal with you right now."  
  
There was silence on the phone for a few minutes, Bosco's breathing the only thing that could be heard. "I needed a ride home."  
  
"You got money for a cab?"  
  
"What do you think?" He snapped back.  
  
"I'll come by to pick you up. But only if you go over that rehab stuff with ya sister." Silence followed, and Faith shrugged when she heard the dial tone. She'd pick him up.  
  
====  
  
Faith turned on the heater, seeing Bosco shivering in the front seat next to her, his arms wrapped around himself. He was only wearing a faded t- shirt and jeans with holes in the knees, his shoes had holes in them, the soles almost gone.  
  
"What happened to your clothes?"  
  
"What clothes?"  
  
"Your jacket?"  
  
Bosco shrugged, "Don't remember."  
  
"Where am I taking you?"  
  
"Mikey's."  
  
"Ya, right. Like I'm gonna do that. I do that, and Mercedes'll kill me for leaving you with him."  
  
"I thought she didn't care."  
  
"Fine, then I'm not leaving you with him..." She thought about where she could take him. Definitely not to his sisters, and he didn't have any money to stay in a hotel, and she didn't have any money on her to pay for one for him. "I'll take you back to my place for tonight."  
  
Bosco looked over at her, a little surprised. "Okay." He said, his voice hiding what he felt.  
  
We were on the bed, her bed. She told me that I should sleep there for the night. She was sitting next to me, close. Our shoulders were touching, and I just broke. I felt my walls breaking – hearing her care. And then she's holding me, why weak body held up by her strong arms. I'm crying, shaking, sobbing, and she's just holding me, rubbing my back, telling me that it's okay, that'll I'll stay with her until we work something else out. We. Her and me, a pair.  
  
So when the tears stopped, and she was holding my face in her hands, my eyes gazed into hers. I let my eyes linger to her lips, and I licked my own. I'd liked her – always. This was the closest I'd ever been to her, and I knew that if she didn't move now, I would cross a boundary.  
  
When she didn't pull back, I leaned in a little, our faces millimeters apart. She didn't pull away, and I felt her shaking, my hands on her elbows. Leaning in, I pressed my lips to hers. It took a moment, but I felt her lips running over mine a moment later, and I ran my hands up her arms, onto her shoulders, and gently pushed her back. 


	7. Chapter 7

Dilution: 7/?  
  
Rating: R (for drugs and language)  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine. But oh, how I wish they could be.....  
  
Note: A/U .... Bosco is a druggie, yada yada yada, you've heard it enough. Gracias to Fyre for letting me use Mercedes, and to Faith for inspiring me. Thanks for the feedback, sorry it's been so long yet again.  
  
It was hard enough to look at Mercedes the next day during shift, let alone answer her questions about Bosco. I told her that I'd picked him up and brought him back to my place for the night, casually leaving the part about me ending up sleeping with him out. I think I now understand why people use the term 'earth shattering'. I'm sure that glass would have broken if our cries had been any louder. Thinking about it makes my whole body tingle, makes my mind escape me.  
  
"Earth. To. Faith." Her voice is low, harsh, short and cutoff. Mostly, annoyed.  
  
"Huh?" I spin my head to her, my thoughts ending.  
  
"Lights green." She points to the light, looking at me like I must be crazy.  
  
It's then that I notice the light in fact, has changed from it's red stage, is now green, and the cars behind me are beginning to honk. I press my foot to the gas petal, and the car lurches forward.  
  
"You okay, Faith?" She asks me, her question genuine.  
  
I only nod, afraid of what will slip past my lips if I do answer. She's looking at me though, her eyes not wavering, so I do speak. "Fine. I'm fine."  
  
Her eyes don't move though, "Everything go okay with Reese last night?" She asks.  
  
"Yup."  
  
She's still looking at me, and what can I say, I crumble under her eyes. "I didn't mean too, it just happened. You know? One minute we're both just sitting there, and then we're kissing, and you know how one thing leads to another, and I'm really, but..." I realize that I've been rambling far too much and far to fast, yet she understood. Her face falls, her jaw opens a little, and she turns from me.  
  
"Go back to the station." Are the only words that she utters, and I turn the car around without question as she continues, "I think I'm going to be sick."  
  
--------------------------  
  
"Come on, will you talk to me already?" I beg, leaning up against the lockers in the precinct. When we came back, I told Lieu that we'd had some bad burritos for lunch, and we were both throwing up. He told us to go home. Which for me, meant back to Bosco in my apartment.  
  
I'd left in there, just got up for work and left him sleeping on the bed. And now I was begging Mercedes to finally talk to me again.  
  
"I...I'm...It just happened, Mercedes. It was a mistake, and I feel bad."  
  
"Like hell." Is her response as I hear the bathroom stall door flipping over and the toilet flush. She washes her hands and turns towards her locker, the one I'm next to, turning the dial to open it.  
  
"I really am. I know what you're thinking. You must hate me, but Mercedes"  
  
"There is no 'but', Faith. You may be older than me, his age, but that doesn't mean that it's okay. Maybe if he were clean and –normal- , I wouldn't have a problem with it. But right now, I do. So leave me the hell alone."  
  
And that's the last thing she says before she leaves, leaving her locker unopened and locked.  
  
-------------------------  
  
The thing was, it scared me. To push down. I wasn't patient, and when I pressed down with the pocket knife, and the blood didn't come up right away, I was scared. Because this time it was different – I was waiting for it to come, to make the pain go away, but instead it brought pain. A sharp, searing pain that hissed throughout my skin. And then something different happened, something that hadn't happened before – I wanted it to stop. As soon as I saw the blood begin to trickle up in some places, small dots of my dark blood bubbling to the surface, I put my hand over it. I tried to stop it. I didn't want this anymore – I wanted something different. That scared me.  
  
I called out to him when I got home, just to see if he was still. When I got no response, I looked around the kitchen for a note, anything to tell me that he was okay. Nothing. What was I expecting, him to care? To remember? He was a junkie, Mercedes junkie brother, off limits in all ways.  
  
Pulling the hair tie out of her hair, she walked down the hall and into the bedroom, jumping back at what she saw.  
  
Bosco was on the ground, blood on his wrists, his eyes staring at his arm. He looked lost, scared, all alone like a little kid. He looked so small then, so thin and weak.  
  
"Bosco.." Faith whispered, slowly kneeling down next to him, grabbing Kleenex off of the bedside table and taking a wrist in her hand. He looked up at her, eyes full of fear.  
  
"I don't wanna die, Faith, I don't wanna die." He told her, sobs escaping from his throat, hands clenching the sides of her shirt tightly as she pulled him to her.  
  
Tears formed in her eyes as she kissed the top of his head, his lips uttering the same thing over and over.  
  
"I'm not gonna let you, you'll be okay." she told him, hoping that he really would be. 


End file.
